GSC2013 StockV8 skinning & user customisation notes

To add a new car: create a new folder in GameData\Vehicles\StockV8, and name it after your custom team. Now copy a veh file from any of the existing team folders and place it in the folder you just created. Rename it <YourName>.veh (where <YourName is.. your name. JohnSmith, JSmith, whatever. No spaces or special characters). 

Open <YourName>.veh and replace whatever driver name is currently in the DefaultLivery="DriverName.DDS" line with <YourName> This defines the filenames, refer to the existing files for examples.

To drive a Chevrolet Stock Car, the following lines in the veh file must be amended (depending on which team you took the veh file from)



Graphics=StockV8_Chv.gen (loads the current light animations)

GenString=CHVAAABL

Number=<YourNumber> (not one listed below)
Team="<Your Team Name>"

Driver="<Your Name>" (used for AI only)          
Description="StockCar V8: <Your Name> <Your Number>"

FullTeamName="<Your Team Name>"

Category="Stock Car V8 2013, Chevrolet"



Similarly, to drive a Peugeot Stock Car, the following lines in the veh file must be amended (depending on which team you took the veh file from)



Graphics=StockV8_Pug.gen (loads the current light animations)

GenString=PUGAAABL

Number=<YourNumber> (not one listed below)
Team="<Your Team Name>"

Driver="<Your Name>" (used for AI only)          
Description="StockCar V8: <Your Name> <Your Number>"

FullTeamName="<Your Team Name>"

Category="Stock Car V8 2013, Peugeot"



The actual skinning should be fairly self-explanitory, the PSDs include generic alpha layers so when you've finished creating your skin simply save the  file as a DXT5 dds (helmets and driver suits should be DXT1), named as you've defined in your custom car's veh file.

If you customise every texture, the files in your new team folder should look something like this:

<YourName>.dds (main skin)
<YourName>.veh (vehicle definition file)
<YourName>Cockpit.dds (cockpit dashboard)
<YourName>Driver.dds (driver suit)
<YourName>Helmet.dds (driver helmet)
<YourName>Window.dds (EXTERIOR windows)
<YourName>Windshield.dds (INTERIOR windows - only used in cockpit view).

Window numbers use the standard font Impact.

Dashes and other customisations:

Firstly, if this looks a bit scary don't worry, it's entirely optional :) 

Screenshots of the 6 dash configurations available currently in GSC2012 are in the Dashes/screenshots folder in this archive. You can use whichever one you want in either Chevy or Peugeot StockV8, and then simply load up and paint on the appropriate PSD.

The correct alpha layers are built into the PSDs, so once you've finished placing the logos just save the PSD as a DXT5 dds named DriverNameCockpit.dds (eg APizzoniaCockpit.dds)

Getting them ingame:

As you may have already noticed while adding cars in the past, there's an interesting looking "Genstring" line in the vehs. This little code tells the game exactly what combination of models to load, and as such we have per-car customisation. The genstring breaks down as follows:

First 3 characters: Car brand. CHV for Chevrolet, PUG for Peugeot.
4th & 5th characters: Dash configuration. AA, BA, CA, DB, EB or FA for Dashes A, B, C, D, E, F respectively*
6th character: Steering wheel variant (currently A only)
7th & 8th characters: Airbox colour (BL, but not currently implemented)

*the 5th character tells the game which ECU orientation to use, but this isn't user-customisable due to a limit in the number of skinnable materials available.

For example, the genstring line for the Mobil Super Pioneer Racing cars is GenString=CHVCAABL, which as you can now see tells the game to load the CHV (Chevrolet) bodywork, with dash C (which has the rotated ECU, A). The final three characters define the steering wheel style (currently only A is available) and the airbox colour displayed when the front bodywork is lost in an accident.

Dash variation genstrings:

Dash A (gen code AA) - Bare metal dash with inset gear indicator pod.

Dash B (gen code BA) - Carbon fibre dash with inset gear indicator pod.

Dash C (gen code CA) - Bare metal dash as used by Mobil Super Pioneer Racing. No gear indicator pod on dash.

Dash D (gen code DB) - Bare metal dash with medium-sized "box" gear indicator pod.

Dash E (gen code EB) - Carbon fibre dash with large "box" gear indicator pod.

Dash F (gen code FA) - Bare metal dash with raised gear indicator pod. As used by Prati-Donaduzzi. 

Airbox colour genstrings:

BL - Black
BU - Blue
GO - Gold
GR - Green
OR - Orange
PP - Purple
RD - Red
WH - White
YL - Yellow

Note: if you attempt to use a code not documented here the game will fail to load.

So, an example: Prati-Donaduzzi run a Peugeot, require dash variation F and we want them to have a purple airbox; so their genstring should be PUGFAAPP. That's <123> PUG (the car brand) <45> FA (dash F) <6> A (steering wheel A *required for genstring, but currently unimplemented*) <78> PP (airbox colour).